First there were over 600, then there were 70, and now there remain just twelve. Twelve good people and true. Our dirty dozen. Choosing just 12 finalists from our 70 favourite entries has been hard. We were tempted to publish another list of all the pieces we wanted to squeeze onto the shortlist and couldn’t, but it would have been pretty much the same as the longlist.

The 2018 shortlist includes established names and emerging talents. It features two people who were shortlisted for the 2017 prize, which is a pretty amazing achievement on their part. One of those authors, Nathan Alling Long, was last year’s eventual winner. Can anyone dethrone the reigning champion? Find out, here, on Monday 16th.